Their concert as part of the Fratopia Festival at the Alte
Opera gives a sounding insight into the workshop of a composer who shied away from the last word
word, the final conclusion. Thus the program leads from the later eliminated
the Scherzo of the original version of the Fourth (1874), to the Finale of 1878, which was also subsequently replaced, to the
1878, which was also replaced later, to the second version from 1878/1881, which is the most common version in concert halls today.
This will be heard in a new form: the new edition will be performed by Benjamin-
Gunnar Cohrs within the framework of the Anton Bruckner Urtext Gesamtausgabe, which has just been
completed and will be premiered by the orchestra in London three days before the Frankfurt concert.
London three days before the Frankfurt concert.
For Sir Simon Rattle, the performance of this edition is part of an intensive engagement
with the work of Anton Bruckner. Convinced by the newly presented Bruckner Symphonies Nos. 6
and 7 of this currently emerging scholarly-practical complete edition, he had
Nikolaus Harnoncourt's death, he took over his role as patron of the edition.
In the concert hall, Rattle regularly devotes himself to the symphonies of Bruckner, whose
whose exuberant musical ideas fascinate him to this day. "In the end, he had more ideas
than he could possibly use," Rattle says. "There is still so much wonderful music that is
is almost never played" - reason enough for him to play even those movements that did not become part of the
final version.
